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At Least 5 Killed in Attack on University in Pakistan Pakistan University Attack Kills at Least 19, Official Says
(35 minutes later)
HONG KONG — Gunmen attacked a university in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday morning, and local media reported hearing explosions and shots as officers and soldiers tried stop the militants. PESHAWAR — At least 19 people were killed and several wounded when militants attacked a university campus in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, a senior government official said.
At least five people have been killed in the attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda town, just outside the city of Peshawar, officials said. The dead included four private university guards and one police officer. Gunmen scaled the rear walls of Bacha Khan University in the town of Charsadda, just outside the city of Peshawar, around 9:30 a.m., firing into the air, witnesses said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack, which had “reportedly resulted into the loss of precious human lives and injured many others,” acording to an official statement. The dead included two female students, a senior faculty member and four guards, said Fakhr-i-Alam, the senior government official. A Pakistani military spokesman, Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, has said that at least four attackers had also been killed in exchanges of fire with the security forces.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, condemned the attack, which had “reportedly resulted into the loss of precious human lives and injured many others,” according to an official statement.
A security officer, who did not give his name, told Pakistan’s ARY TV that so far, officials had succeeded in rescuing 50 or 60 people. “At this stage, we can’t say how many gunmen are inside,” he said. “The operation is going on. They are heavily armed. You can hear the gunshots, blasts, grenade blasts. We do not know how many people are inside.”A security officer, who did not give his name, told Pakistan’s ARY TV that so far, officials had succeeded in rescuing 50 or 60 people. “At this stage, we can’t say how many gunmen are inside,” he said. “The operation is going on. They are heavily armed. You can hear the gunshots, blasts, grenade blasts. We do not know how many people are inside.”
Kasib Jan, a student, told ARY TV that he had seen four or five gunmen with black turbans shouting “Allah Akbar.” The number of attackers remained unknown. Security officials said from three to six gunmen stormed the school, but a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban called reporters in Peshawar to claim responsibility for the attack and say that four of their men were involved in the campus attack.
“They were firing all around,” he said. “University security guards first engaged them but it was beyond their capacities. We hid behind the benches in the classrooms. We heard them walking around but they moved away. We came out and ran away to safety.” Kasib Jan, a student, told ARY TV that he had seen four or five gunmen with black turbans shouting “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.”
He said Wednesday was an exam day and there was also a peace concert scheduled, so the campus was filled with students. “They were firing all around,” he said. “University security guards first engaged them, but it was beyond their capacities. We hid behind the benches in the classrooms. We heard them walking around, but they moved away. We came out and ran away to safety.”
A graduate student at a local hospital, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound, told ARY TV that he could not see much because of heavy fog. He said that Wednesday was an exam day and that a peace concert was also scheduled, so the campus was filled with students.
A graduate student at a local hospital, being treated for a gunshot wound, told ARY TV that he could not see much because of heavy fog.
Peshawar and the surrounding region have suffered repeated terrorist attacks in recent years. In December 2014 seven gunmen from the Pakistani Taliban killed 145 people, most of them children, in an attack on a military run school in Peshawar.Peshawar and the surrounding region have suffered repeated terrorist attacks in recent years. In December 2014 seven gunmen from the Pakistani Taliban killed 145 people, most of them children, in an attack on a military run school in Peshawar.
That attack, the deadliest in Pakistan’s history, sparked a broad crackdown on militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. That attack, the deadliest in Pakistan’s history, provoked a broad crackdown on militants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.
On Tuesday a Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 11 people at a police checkpoint in Peshawar. On Tuesday, a Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 11 people at a police checkpoint in Peshawar.